FACT: NEVADA IS TOPS IN U.S. IN FORECLOSURES!

Listen closely and you’ll hear the creaking sound of nearly 40 sub-prime mortgage lenders nationwide, that have either shut down operations, filed for bankruptcy or have been acquired through last-ditch mergers since late last year.

The Las Vegas Resale Homes market is feeling the pressure! Home prices are projected to drop in the near future.

With the inventory of homes for sale at record highs in both Las Vegas and Phoenix, it’s taking longer to sell homes. Some are sitting on the market for six months until prices are slashed.

Could the subprime lending problem make that worse? Absolutely! Eventually, banks will “take what they can get” in any given market.

Nevada replaced Colorado as the state with the highest foreclosure rate in January after an 8 percent increase in filings from the previous month and a slight decrease in Colorado’s filings.

Nevada reported 2,397 new foreclosure filings in January, a rate of one new foreclosure filing for every 362 households, or 2.4 times the national average.

Creative financing, a hot housing market and over loaded speculation are all responsible for the current foreclosure trend in Nevada.

Housing affordability has come into question during the past few years when home prices rose at a greater percentage than salaries. In recent months, home prices have seemed to level off with a slight decline.

 The GLVAR (Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors) most recent sales statistics support this contention. In January, GLVAR reported the median sales price of a single-family, detached home was $302,000, while the median sales price of attached condo/townhome was $204,450. These numbers may remain less than cities in Southern California, but more than the valley’s early 2004 housing median price when it hovered around $200,000.

Lower priced homes and assistance does exist, if one knows where to find them.

The resale market may offer lower-cost homes comparable to new ones, but sometimes there not much of a price difference because of builder incentives.

We’ve seen the median price of resale home sales go down slightly, and for the most part new-home prices have gone up. But, builders make up for that because they offer a multitude of incentives to buyers. Your may find a lower price on a resale. It ultimately comes down to what the terms are and what the incentives may be.

Bottom Line …… Get with a Realtor who stays on top of the local market conditions. Call us at 702-561-9562.

The new community of Sky Ridge, located in the Northwest portion of the Las Vegas Valley, on a hillside setting, sits just minutes from Mt. Charleston and Floyd Lamb Park is also nearby.

The community offers 4 new two-story floorplans ranging from 1,475 to 1,909 square feet. Interior features include volume and vaulted ceilings, architectural archways and plant shelves, under-stairwell storage, and French doors which lead from the living area to the rear yard.

Kitchens include white-on-white appliances, granite countertops, stainless steel sink, beech wood-stained raised-panel cabinets and a breakfast bar in most models.

All appliances, including the refrigerator, microwave, and washer and dryer are included. Full window coverings are standard and installed at no additional cost. The neighborhood is Energy-Star certified. Prices begin in the $200,000’s.

Homeowners with troubled credit histories are finding it harder to get mortgages or refinance homes because softening in the housing market is making lenders less likely to handle riskier loans.

Several lenders of subprime mortgages, used primarily for home equity loans and for people with spotty credit, have shown signs of trouble after the housing bubble popped and more homeowners began defaulting on high-interest mortgages.

The shifting market is prompting investors to demand higher standards for loan approvals. Loans for 100 percent of a property’s value required a minimum credit score of 580 last year, but now require at least a 600 score.

A high value loan with no income verification could be had last year with a credit score of 620 a year ago but now needs a minimum score of 640.

Most lenders consider scores higher than 700 to signal good financial health and score below 600 to signal risk and a reason to increase the interest rate on a loan.

If your credit score is or has taken a dip there are ways to remedy that situation. We encourage anyone to write to us, we’d be happy to show you ways to give your credit score the boost it might need.